Guatemalan former V.P. Juan Francisco Reyes dies

Juan Francisco Reyes, vice president of Guatemala during the 2000-2004 administration of Alfonso Portillo, died Thursday, one of his associates said. He was 80.

Gabriel Orellana, who was foreign minister in the Portillo government, said that Reyes died in his Guatemala City residence at 3.30 am, but did not provide any information on cause of death.

Portillo and Reyes were elected on the ticket of the since-disbanded Guatemalan Republican Front, a party founded by late dictator Efrain Rios Montt.

Prior to serving as vice president, Reyes was a member of Congress from 1990 to 1994, and he subsequently spent four years in the Central American Parliament, which is based in Guatemala.